Art & Design Now 

Ian Steadman, www.newstatesman.com, Feb 2014

Eric Klarenbeek, a self-described “artist of the unusual” (he’s not wrong), has, along with the University of Wageningen, created the MyceliumChair. Mycelium is a bit like the root bit of a fungus, the long, wiry, almost hair-like strands that grow through the soil in search of nutrients. Klarenbeek 3D prints objects using a material that is just a mash of wet straw and mycelium.

The mycelium grows, absorbing water and filling the gaps between the straw, creating what Klarenbeek considers to be a very strong - yet lightweight...

Will Gompez, BBC News, Feb 2014

The National Gallery has made its first ever acquisition of a painting by an American artist.

George Bellows' 1912 painting, Men of the Docks, depicts a group of workers standing by the waterfront in Brooklyn.

The museum paid £15.6m ($25.5m) for the artwork, which was previously owned by Randolph College in Virginia.

It marks a major shift in the gallery's collecting policy, previously limited to paintings by European artists from the Renaissance to around 1900...

Jonathan Petropoulos, artnews.com, Jan 2014

The discovery of approximately 1,400 pictures that belonged to the dealer Hildebrand Gurlitt and were concealed in the Munich apartment of his son, Cornelius Gurlitt, has made headlines worldwide. We can all be grateful that so many masterpieces escaped destruction and we can hope that they will come back into public view.

At the same time, the cache raises a host of questions. For starters, how did the Gurlitts obtain all these works? And what are the broader implications of this hoard that was hidden for almost 70 years? What does it tell us about the fate of the thousands of artworks that went missing during World War II?..

Image: Art historian and dealer Hildebrand Gurlitt amassed a huge collection that his son Cornelius (pictured) protected in his Munich apartment for almost 70 years. ©FAMEFLYNET INC. 

Sarah Vizard, marketingweek.co.uk, Jan 2014

Hyundai is making it first move into the arts with a sponsorship of Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall from 2015 as part of its long-term drive to ink partnerships that drive an ‘emotional’ connection with customers.

The deal will see Hyundai fund a new series of annual installations in the Turbine Hall that will be branded the ‘Hyundai Commission”. The South Korean car firm has made an 11-year commitment to Tate Modern, the longest in the gallery’s history...

Oliver Wainwright, theguardian.com, February 2014

The world's first 'selfie building' has opened at the Olympic Park in Sochi. It's as easy to use as a traditional photo booth – but it blows up visitors' faces 3,500 times to create giant digital images that protude from the side of architect Asif Khan's pavilion...

Oliver Wainwright, theguardian.com, Feb 2014

Folding helmets, smoke alarms that send you text messages and a pyramid-shaped school that floats on a lagoon in Nigeria are among the innovative solutions that make up the Design Museum's Designs of the Year shortlist, announced on Monday.

From architecture and fashion to transport and digital design, the 76 nominations include the usual global stars – Zaha Hadid and John Pawson, David Chipperfield and Miuccia Prada – alongside smaller startups and student initiatives. Together, they provide a barometer of emerging trends and common themes, from the ubiquity of the smartphone to the growing number of independent designers and inventors turning to crowd-funding to see their ideas realised...